Drybones's Blog
Reflections on the the first show
Sep 17th, 2008 09:19:50 PM
Well, it has been some time since the first pod cast and there are some things that I feel went unsaid. In the span of 44 minutes, we covered a lot of topics related to MMORPGs, but listeners should realize that those 44 minutes were derived from over an hour and a half of material. One can only imagine that the extra 46 minutes were filled with mostly quibble and quips that were either not on topic or did not contribute to the conversation at hand, but none the less, a lot of the tiny details are either cut or over looked.
On the topic of death penalty, I have only one thing to say. I will never again play a game that has such severe death penalties as those in EverQuest. To be honest, I just don’t have the time. In the days that I played EQ1, I was a high school student and had a TON of extra time on my hands. Even through college I can remember late nights in game, raiding or grouping. And sure, if you have 8 hours every day to play, then a 2 hour corpse run ain’t so bad. But as we all know, things change, we grow up and get jobs, have families, and live our lives to the best of our abilities, and as this change progresses, we find that there is less and less time in a day to sit down and really get into a game. There are even some days when I get home from work, sit at my computer with the anticipation of getting in game, I get up to the first mob I see and am immediately jumped by 3 other mobs who pathing had been programmed conveniently to coincide with my location and …poof…I’m dead. I’ll look at my watch and think to my self…”crap, there goes half my play time”. That’s right, HALF. Because in 30 minutes dinner needs to be ready and then cleaned and god knows what other chores and responsibilities will arise in the next few hours.
I need a game that allows me to accomplish all that I need to accomplish in 30 minutes of play time. As you can imagine, it becomes increasingly difficult to find groups and do fun group events such as dungeons or group quests the shorter I have to play. This is why I cannot play a game like Vanguard. While Vanguard reminds me so much of the glory days back in EQ, I get so frustrated with the fact that with my allotted play time, I would be rude to join up with a group only to have to leave the moment things start getting interesting. And then I try to finish just a single solo quest and still I find that those 30 minutes don’t even allow for that.
World of Warcraft, on the other hand, does. I will wait until another time to discuss in full the reasons that I play WoW, but for now it is enough to say that it is mostly because I can log on for a very short period of time, even at the top level of the game, and feel as though I can get something accomplished, whether it be pvp honour/marks, completing daily quests or playing a lowbie character and knocking off 5 or 6 quests. Hell, the lvl 70 daily quests can all be completed in a mere 45minutes. That results in about 100g+ and a ton of useful faction not to mention all the useful drops you can get.
Faction grinding, while in some games is tedious and tremendously boring, in WoW, it is challenging yet attainable and the rewards are sometimes well worth the effort. Never once do I get all hung up about having to do some quest over and over and over and over just to get the faction I need to buy some piece of gear. Its more like, “I’m going to do this quest because, wow…look at all the money it brings in, and hey, I need some of that cloth that drops for my tailoring, and omg, a blue item just dropped and, oh hey, lets bomb the shit of those demons from this flying mount, and jeez, these mobs drop this item I can turn in to get faction with these guys and all this while, every quest I do gives me faction with these other guys who will sell me this crazy armor kit that adds 18sta and 20 resilience to my head slot, and oh, there are title I can earn and the list goes on.”
Bottom line is, in 45 minutes of play time, I can have loads of fun while advancing my character even after he has hit the top level.
As mentioned in the pod cast, alternate advancement is a very important element to an MMORPG. An AA system allows for your character to grow even after attaining the highest level in the game. A game with a good AA system can be spotted a mile away just by the sheer number of players at the top level. And I’ll tell you this, from what I see every day, there are tons of players in WoW at the top level. In fact, it has been said time and time again, in WoW, the game opens up at 70. After hitting 70, there are so many things to do that were not there before, and each and every one of them advance your character in some way or another. Mind you, this does not detract from the 1-70 experience. In fact, I have been so inclined to create 8 different characters, 4 of which are over lvl 38, and I intend to keep playing those low levels because I find them extremely enjoyable. But my ultimate goal of course is to see those 4 characters all the way to 70 and possibly even more characters. Only one of those characters is 70, but I look forward to the day that my 67 warrior makes it to 70 so that I can experience all the things that come with that level.
A good AA system also shows when two level 70s go head to head in a pvp duel and it is quite obvious that the guy who just attained lvl 70 will get WHOOPED by the guy who has gotten to 70 a long while ago. The more veteran character has progress through the MANY various different AA systems that WoW has to offer and even after years of playing still has not run out of things to do to make his character better.
Ok, enough about WoW. I know most of you listeners are Vanguard fans. I’m not here to knock Vanguard, in fact I enjoy the game a lot. But we are not here to discuss what we like and don’t like. We are here to discuss why we play the game we play and why we don’t play others. I tried Vanguard, in its infant stage and again more recently, and I must say it has come a long way. I’m afraid, however, that Vanguard is just too much commitment for a working man like myself, a commitment that does not provide me with enough rewards that are worthy of my time. Sure enough, it is quicker to level a toon to max level in Vanguard than it is in WoW, but only if you play for long periods of time each and every time you log on. Sure enough, the rewards you get from dungeon crawls are extremely shiny, look great and add a ton of stats. But what does that mean to me in the end….I can perform my job better in the next dungeon I play in? whoopty doo. I’d much rather stick with what works for me, and what is enjoyable for me, and while WoW does not meet my criteria as a good MMORPG, it does provide me with lots of fun and exciting experiences, enough of which that has made me stay up to now, and probably well into the future.
Until next time,
Drybones
On the topic of death penalty, I have only one thing to say. I will never again play a game that has such severe death penalties as those in EverQuest. To be honest, I just don’t have the time. In the days that I played EQ1, I was a high school student and had a TON of extra time on my hands. Even through college I can remember late nights in game, raiding or grouping. And sure, if you have 8 hours every day to play, then a 2 hour corpse run ain’t so bad. But as we all know, things change, we grow up and get jobs, have families, and live our lives to the best of our abilities, and as this change progresses, we find that there is less and less time in a day to sit down and really get into a game. There are even some days when I get home from work, sit at my computer with the anticipation of getting in game, I get up to the first mob I see and am immediately jumped by 3 other mobs who pathing had been programmed conveniently to coincide with my location and …poof…I’m dead. I’ll look at my watch and think to my self…”crap, there goes half my play time”. That’s right, HALF. Because in 30 minutes dinner needs to be ready and then cleaned and god knows what other chores and responsibilities will arise in the next few hours.
I need a game that allows me to accomplish all that I need to accomplish in 30 minutes of play time. As you can imagine, it becomes increasingly difficult to find groups and do fun group events such as dungeons or group quests the shorter I have to play. This is why I cannot play a game like Vanguard. While Vanguard reminds me so much of the glory days back in EQ, I get so frustrated with the fact that with my allotted play time, I would be rude to join up with a group only to have to leave the moment things start getting interesting. And then I try to finish just a single solo quest and still I find that those 30 minutes don’t even allow for that.
World of Warcraft, on the other hand, does. I will wait until another time to discuss in full the reasons that I play WoW, but for now it is enough to say that it is mostly because I can log on for a very short period of time, even at the top level of the game, and feel as though I can get something accomplished, whether it be pvp honour/marks, completing daily quests or playing a lowbie character and knocking off 5 or 6 quests. Hell, the lvl 70 daily quests can all be completed in a mere 45minutes. That results in about 100g+ and a ton of useful faction not to mention all the useful drops you can get.
Faction grinding, while in some games is tedious and tremendously boring, in WoW, it is challenging yet attainable and the rewards are sometimes well worth the effort. Never once do I get all hung up about having to do some quest over and over and over and over just to get the faction I need to buy some piece of gear. Its more like, “I’m going to do this quest because, wow…look at all the money it brings in, and hey, I need some of that cloth that drops for my tailoring, and omg, a blue item just dropped and, oh hey, lets bomb the shit of those demons from this flying mount, and jeez, these mobs drop this item I can turn in to get faction with these guys and all this while, every quest I do gives me faction with these other guys who will sell me this crazy armor kit that adds 18sta and 20 resilience to my head slot, and oh, there are title I can earn and the list goes on.”
Bottom line is, in 45 minutes of play time, I can have loads of fun while advancing my character even after he has hit the top level.
As mentioned in the pod cast, alternate advancement is a very important element to an MMORPG. An AA system allows for your character to grow even after attaining the highest level in the game. A game with a good AA system can be spotted a mile away just by the sheer number of players at the top level. And I’ll tell you this, from what I see every day, there are tons of players in WoW at the top level. In fact, it has been said time and time again, in WoW, the game opens up at 70. After hitting 70, there are so many things to do that were not there before, and each and every one of them advance your character in some way or another. Mind you, this does not detract from the 1-70 experience. In fact, I have been so inclined to create 8 different characters, 4 of which are over lvl 38, and I intend to keep playing those low levels because I find them extremely enjoyable. But my ultimate goal of course is to see those 4 characters all the way to 70 and possibly even more characters. Only one of those characters is 70, but I look forward to the day that my 67 warrior makes it to 70 so that I can experience all the things that come with that level.
A good AA system also shows when two level 70s go head to head in a pvp duel and it is quite obvious that the guy who just attained lvl 70 will get WHOOPED by the guy who has gotten to 70 a long while ago. The more veteran character has progress through the MANY various different AA systems that WoW has to offer and even after years of playing still has not run out of things to do to make his character better.
Ok, enough about WoW. I know most of you listeners are Vanguard fans. I’m not here to knock Vanguard, in fact I enjoy the game a lot. But we are not here to discuss what we like and don’t like. We are here to discuss why we play the game we play and why we don’t play others. I tried Vanguard, in its infant stage and again more recently, and I must say it has come a long way. I’m afraid, however, that Vanguard is just too much commitment for a working man like myself, a commitment that does not provide me with enough rewards that are worthy of my time. Sure enough, it is quicker to level a toon to max level in Vanguard than it is in WoW, but only if you play for long periods of time each and every time you log on. Sure enough, the rewards you get from dungeon crawls are extremely shiny, look great and add a ton of stats. But what does that mean to me in the end….I can perform my job better in the next dungeon I play in? whoopty doo. I’d much rather stick with what works for me, and what is enjoyable for me, and while WoW does not meet my criteria as a good MMORPG, it does provide me with lots of fun and exciting experiences, enough of which that has made me stay up to now, and probably well into the future.
Until next time,
Drybones
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